A week-long event, the GSTC is a comprehensive educational capacity building and leadership empowerment programme for teachers, managers of schools, education policy makers, students and other stakeholders in the education value chain.

Organised by Africa Education Gateway (AEG) in partnership with Pearson and the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS), the 10th GSTC was held from November 4 to November 11 in Accra.

More than 2,000 participants took part in the week-long event which was climaxed with the first ever education festival in the country at the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA).

The festival was to showcase what the country had to offer in terms of education, by allowing schools, institutions and educational businesses to exhibits their services and products.

The Director of Programme at AEG, Grant Bulmuo, said the nation ought to make efforts and implement policies to ensure that every child, no matter the condition or situation, had access to education.

The country, he said, was far behind in creating access to education for children with special needs, a situation which meant some children were denied the opportunity to develop their potentials and have a brighter future.

“We still have a long way to go.

There are many children who cannot be taught in schools in Ghana because they have special needs.

We have the special needs schools but we need to make more investments in that sector,” he said.

Event

It was on the theme- Equity: Inequity in Education anywhere in Africa is a threat to the Socio-Economic Security of African Countries

It included seminars for school owners, managers, teachers and other stakeholders in education on how to improve the quality and access to education through effective leadership, use of technology and training.

The education festival included events such as awards, edutainment, exhibition, talk show and from top educationists and leadership coaches.

It attracted leaders in the education sector such as a Deputy Minister of Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, and many motivational speakers such as Farida Nana Efua Bedwei and Bernard Koku Avle.

Mr Belmuo said resource in education was not uniformly distributed, a situation, which he had bred systematic inequalities, further hampering sustainable development.

He said there was need to strengthen education system and structures to promote equity and inclusiveness in education.

“An equity-led leadership and governance will facilitate effective planning, offer broader participation of all in the education space to share and contribute towards underprivileged schools, classrooms and subjects.

It will also ensure that an effective decentralised mechanism and strategic distribution to ensure that no school, teacher, learner or community is excluded,” he added.

Rev. Fordjour said the lack of equity in education especially with regard to access was what pushed the government to introduce the Free SHS policy to bridge the gap.

“Before the introduction of Free SHS, hundreds of thousands of students missed out on opportunity to further their education not because they did not have the right passes, but there was no support to continue.

 Six years after the introduction of Free SHS, access has doubled from 800,000 to about 1.4million,” he said.